Thad Viers

Rising Republican Star Arrested For Harassing Woman Who Dumped Him

Ryan J. Reilly | January 6, 2012, 4:05PM

Update: Roll Call reports he's dropped out of the race.

South Carolina state Rep. Thad Viers, who's running for a seat in Congress and was named a one of the National Republican Campaign Committee's "On The Radar" candidates, was arrested on Friday for allegedly harassing a 28-year-old woman who broke off her relationship with him in July.

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Occupy Wall Street

DCCC Head Steve Israel: GOP Has 'Hit A New Low,' Questioned My Commitment To Religion

Eric Kleefeld | October 20, 2011, 12:50PM

Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY)

Updated October 20, 2 p.m. ET

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is firing back at an attack from their counterparts at the NRCC, who released a web video Thursday that accused DCCC head Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) of supporting anti-Semitic demonstrators at the Occupy Wall Street protests.

In an e-mail to the DCCC supporter list, Steve Israel declares: "The extreme right wing has launched an outrageous attack to distract us from their reckless economic policies: They are questioning my commitment to my own religion."

He also adds: "They're attacking me to try to silence you -- because they think it's wrong that you're frustrated and even angry about what Republicans are trying to do to this country. The personal attacks they've launched on me for standing with you are nothing in comparison to the hardships faced by middle income families across America every day."

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Occupy Wall Street

NRCC Web Video: DCCC Head Steve Israel 'Stands With' OWS Anti-Semitism

Eric Kleefeld | October 20, 2011, 10:27AM

Republicans are continuing to attack the Occupy Wall Street protests -- singling out elements of radicalism and/or anti-Semitism -- with a new web video from the National Republican Congressional Committee attacking Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), who heads up their counterparts at the DCCC.

The video cites a New York Post opinion column, to say that "Steve Israel of New York, is urging party members to 'stand with' the demonstrators."

However, this is not actually what the Post column said: "The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, chaired by Rep. Steve Israel of New York, is urging party members to "stand with" the demonstrators." This in turn was referring to an e-mail petition that the DCCC sent to its supporter list, in order to score political points against the House Republican leadership -- not to regular party strategy for the actual politicians.

The video features dramatic music, and news clips of the protests. After showing a parade of socialism, communism, and that guy who stuck his rear end up against a police car, the on-screen text declares: "STEVE ISRAEL STANDS WITH THEM."

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Chris Ward

$500K Embezzlement Settlement Gives NRCC Fundraising Edge For June

Rachel Slajda | July 22, 2010, 12:08PM

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), former chair of the NRCC

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which raises money to help put GOP butts in House seats, sent an email this week bragging in big red letters that it outraised its Democratic counterpart for the month of June.

The NRCC raised about $9.15 million and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee came in a close second with around $9.02 million. The difference: $138,000.

The thing that put the NRCC over the top? A $500,000 settlement from the NRCC's insurance company, stemming from the years-long bilking of the NRCC by its former treasurer, Chris Ward.

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Vito Fossella

Does Embezzlement Scandal Explain Fossella's Missing FEC Reports?

Zachary Roth | May 12, 2010, 3:32PM

Former Rep. Vito Fossella (R-NY)

Two-family man Vito Fossella is said to be mulling a bid to recapture his old House seat -- but he hasn't filed FEC reports, as required by law, in over a year. Could a Republican embezzlement scandal help explain why?

The commission recently wrote to Fossella -- a New York Republican who left Congress under a cloud in 2009 -- to inform him that his campaign committee had failed to file a quarterly report for the January-March 2010 period, as required by law. This was the fourth "failure to file" notice Fossella has received from the committee over the last year, according to online records examined by TPMmuckraker. The former lawmaker didn't file reports for any of the second, third, or fourth quarters of 2009.

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Congressional Trust 2010

RNC and NRCC Join Forces For New Midterm Fundraising Operation

Justin Elliott | April 27, 2010, 8:36AM

RNC Chair Michael Steele and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), the NRCC chair

In a sign that the 2010 money race is heating up, the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee earlier this month set up a joint fundraising committee which will allow each group to benefit from the other's donor base as well as inject money into key House races, NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsay confirmed to TPMmuckraker.

NRCC Deputy Finance Director Jenny Sheffield Drucker describes the advantages of the committee, called Congressional Trust 2010, in an April 23 email to prospective donors obtained by TPMmuckraker: "It allows the RNC and the NRCC to fund such activities as direct contributions and coordinated expenditures for Republican House candidates in targeted races across the country."

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Republican National Committee

In Rebuke To GOP, House Votes 416-0 To Ban Misleading 'Census' Mailers

Zachary Roth | March 10, 2010, 5:29PM

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

The House has voted 416-0 to ban misleading mailers designed to look like official communications from the Census Bureau of the kind that two national Republican groups recently sent out.

Under the bill, co-sponsored by two House Republicans as well as several Democrats, mailers marked "census" will have to state the name and address of the sender, along with an unambiguous disclaimer that it's not affiliated with the federal government. It will be taken up by the Senate soon.

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NRCC

'Nancy Pelosi' Sends Out Fundraising Email For GOP

Zachary Roth | February 18, 2010, 9:16AM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

A fundraising email sent yesterday by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) appeared under the name "Nancy Pelosi," and was addressed to "Dear Naive Republican."

No, the Speaker hasn't switched parties. Rather, the email, obtained by TPMmuckraker, seems to have been a crude stab at satire by the NRCC, designed to highlight what the committee sees as the failure of the stimulus plan.

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Allen Stanford

Campaign Committees Not Rushing To Return Tainted Stanford Money

Zachary Roth | February 11, 2010, 11:59AM

Allen Stanford

Neither the Democratic nor the Republican campaign committees that raked in big bucks from accused Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford, according to the court-appointed receiver in the case, say they plan to return the cash.

The receiver, Dallas lawyer Ralph Janvey told the AP that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) had received $950,000 from Stanford, and that the National Republican Campaign Committee had gotten $238,500.

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Allen Stanford

Blame It On Antigua! The Forbidden 'Love' Of Pete Sessions And Allen Stanford

Zachary Roth | December 28, 2009, 12:06PM

Intrigue. Deceit. And forbidden love on a sun-kissed tropical island -- with billions of dollars on the line.

No, this isn't a Danielle Steel bodice-ripper. Or Mark Sanford's latest confession about crossing "the ultimate line". Instead, it's the story of the tangled, high-stakes relationship between Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) and accused Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford.

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